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Island athletes credit Mount Washington for helping them to reach Olympics

Peter Gibson can remember back to the time when some people wanted to change the name of Mount Washington because it sounded “too American.

Peter Gibson can remember back to the time when some people wanted to change the name of Mount Washington because it sounded “too American.”

Now the Island ski hill, of which Gibson has been general manager for 41 years, has produced four athletes on the Canadian team at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Is that red, white and maple syrup enough for you?

Spencer O’Brien, 30, of Courtenay is competing in snowboarding slopestyle and big air, Cassie Sharpe, 25, of Comox in skiing half-pipe, Teal Harle, 21, of Campbell River in skiing slopestyle, and Carle Brenneman, 28, of Comox in snowboard cross.

All four attribute growing up in close proximity to Mount Washington as the reason they developed into Olympians.

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While it doesn’t come anywhere near matching the Island’s considerable contribution to the Canadian team for the Summer Olympics — which usually numbers between 40 and 50 athletes, and is liberally sprinkled with legends such as Silken Laumann, Derek Porter, Adam Kreek, Ryan Cochrane and Simon Whitfield — it’s still a remarkable achievement for a mountain that is pretty much the Island’s sole venue for producing Winter Olympians in snow events.

Island ice rinks have produced Winter Olympics podium performers — including gold medallist Jamie Benn and silver medallist Kent Manderville in hockey and bronze medallist Julie Sutton in curling — and world champions such as Victor Kraatz in figure skating, twice fourth in the Olympics.

Now a rising generation out of Mount Washington looks to make a world impact in snow events.

“It’s a lot easier to ski and board around the Lower Mainland and Okanagan because they have more ski hills,” said Gibson. “We’re an isolated ski hill on the Island.”

Yet it is one that’s producing world-class talent. With more to come.

“The four from Mount Washington who made it to Pyeongchang only scratches the surface,” said Don Sharpe, father of rising ski half-pipe star Cassie Sharpe, who broke through this season with three victories on the World Cup circuit to stamp her ticket to South Korea.

“There are three or four others from the mountain who were so close to making the Canadian team, as well,” said Don Sharpe, who was director of business operations for Mount Washington for 17 years up to 2017.

Included in that close-call group is 21-year-old Darcy Sharpe, Don’s son and Cassie’s brother, who is an alternate to the Canadian Olympic freestyle ski team and will compete in Pyeongchang only if a team member is injured.

Darcy Sharpe recently won silver at the Winter X Games in men’s snowboarding slopestyle, so having the Sharpe siblings both competing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is a distinct possibility.

“I’m so proud and over the moon about what our Mount Washington skiers and boarders have accomplished … words can’t express it,” said Don Sharpe, who with wife Chantal and eight other family members, is in Pyeongchang to watch Cassie perform Feb. 19-20.

This is the second Olympics for 2013 world champion O’Brien, a veteran of Sochi 2014, while Harle, Brenneman and Cassie Sharpe are making their Games debuts.

“It’s cool to see so much talent coming off the Island and adds an extra element of pride to see hometown athletes doing so well,” said O’Brien.

So how did this generation emerge from the Island ski hill? It began with grassroots learning and an adventuresome spirit willing to take chances on the ski hill. You can see it evident on the mountain now.

“It used to be, many years ago, that our toughest Double Black Diamond and Boomerang runs were not busy,” said Mount Washington manager Gibson.

“But now there are lineups to get on them. The calibre has improved so much. And that’s where these kids learned. It all starts from there.”

Gibson alluded to one of B.C.’s, and Canada’s, most famous ski hills.

“It used to be said that Red Mountain created the skier,” he said of the mountain in the Kootenays that produced the likes of Nancy Greene Raine. “The same here on Mount Washington.”

Two-time Olympian O’Brien concurred.

“Mount Washington, because of the terrain, produces well-rounded athletes,” she said. “Mount Washington certainly shaped me as a boarder.”

The four Pyeongchang Olympians practically grew up on Mount Washington as kids — as did Islanders and Olympians Allison Forsyth and Tanya Clarke before them on the same mountain.

“They were all pushing each other and having fun doing it,” said Don Sharpe.

“They influenced and challenged each other. They never looked at it, when they were kids, as potentially having a chance of going to the Olympics. They were just having fun, which is what it’s all about on a ski hill.

“That’s why all four are freestylers — it was the fun factor for them as teens on the hill. Then you go to a few competitions, win a few, and suddenly the realization kicks in that maybe going further to the provincial, national and international levels is possible.”

It is those formative years in which Olympians are created.

“All four had access to snow on Mount Washington within 45 minutes,” said Sharpe.

“You never had to wake them up on weekends. They loved it a tonne. They would put some food in their coats and never come back for lunch or dinner.”

Both Gibson and Sharpe give much credit for this success to the clubs that have formed on Mount Washington, especially the Vancouver Island Mountain Sports Society, which supported the Olympians, including with scholarships to help in their training.

“This has all come about because of the strong clubs and parent groups on Mount Washington, combined with a mountain that provides a physical challenge to the point of making you ride and ski better,” said Gibson, who retires in May.

“It’s very rewarding to see where it has taken us.”

The thriving club scene on Mount Washington includes the Strathcona Nordic Ski Club. That Island club was heavily involved volunteering in the Nordic events of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, when 25 club members helped prepare the Nordic venue in the Callaghan Valley.

That included Susan Denny, the Olympic supervisor of course marshals, and Wilf Dreher, the supervisor of course marking. Marc Lyster from Mount Washington’s Nordic operations crew helped groom the Olympic course. But the most physical role among the contingent from the Strathcona Club was undertaken by B.C. team member Andrea Lee, who was a forerunner, skiing the course minutes before each Nordic race in the Vancouver Winter Games.

With that sort of background and expertise, look for Nordic skiers from Mount Washington to join the freestylers in future Winter Games, Don Sharpe said. “We have a strong affinity to freestyle, and those are the athletes who have excelled to date. But the alpine club gets the job done, as well, on Mount Washington.”

The Pyeongchang performers from Mount Washington were deeply affected as younger athletes by their up-close brush with Olympians when athletes from 20 nations, mostly in biathlon and cross-country, trained on the Island mountain ahead of the 2010 Vancouver Games. Watching Olympians from nations such as Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, China and Japan — not to mention Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, the Snow Leopard from Ghana — left an indelible impression.

Little did they know that eight years later, they would be the role models providing the inspiration to aspiring younger athletes.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com